Censorship of Female Nipples on Social Media
Censorship has become a controversial topic on social media platforms. This has been clearly exemplified online with the use of hashtags like #freethenipple. The #freethenipple was spearheaded by activist and filmmaker Lina Esco, which will be explained more thoroughly. The popularity of these social media website has allowed campaigns like #freethenipple to have worldwide success. In addition to this campaign I will be taking a deeper look into Courtney Demone, a transgender women who has tested Instagrams censorship policies regarding the female chest and what Instagram considers female. With these campaigns it is important that social media platforms like Instagram review its policies regarding nudity and the female nipple.
Before I look into these campaigns it is important to first understand what censorship is. Censorship is when material
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“#FreeTheNipple has failed to show the diverse ways in which people with differing bodies are sexualized, fetishized, exoticized and shamed. It has also failed to recognize that baring her nipples doesn’t mean freedom for every woman,” wrote Courtney Demone (Mashable, 2015).
Currently all of the pictures that Demone posted on Instagram revealing her nipple have been removed except for one where she does not refer to herself as a female. However, the same pictures remain on Facebook.
When Instagram was asked about why Demone pictures were removed they released a statement saying, “they understood the importance of an individual's personal journey (transitioning) and that they do their best to help people express themselves on their sites. But, for women like Demone and others like her who have identified themselves as trans women and use the pronoun she, their pictures are being censored” (dna,
The hypersexualization of females is fairly prevalent across different cultures. The media seems to be bombarded by it; magazines are plastered with risque images of barely clothed woman and even young girls. In 2011, a French issue of Vogue featured females as young as ten years-old as models, “Stretched and slinked on an array of animal furs.” Their clothing was low cut and revealing. This prompted the French
Jacoby states that the people who most support the censorship of pornography are women. These women are often self-proclaimed feminists who ironically support the First Amendment. While criticizing the production of pornography, these feminists attempt to argue that “mainstream” pornography is no different than child porn.
It is now so deeply integrated in our society that a piece of entertainment loses its value when nudity is not present in some form. With all this nudity floating around,one may ask what role does it play in displaying the message of the image. Nudity itself is a challenging ideology to our society, the line between appropriate vs inappropriate and acceptable versis unacceptable have seem to grow thin. The act of nudity can represent a multitude of ideology before being nude was seen as sacred and the act of being seen nude especially in public was forbidden.But as the narrative has evolved overtime being nude is now correlated to being free and open minded. Being nude in our society is expressing yourself in a manner that you deem acceptable, that we shouldn't lot be limited to what society deems appropriate. It is actually a very selfish narrative where everything revolves around the person and his or her personal goals.Marita Sturkin and Lisa Cartwright hit on the ideology of individual in the “Practices of Looking,” “One could say that ideology is the means by which certain values, such as individual freedom, progress, and the importance of home, are made to seem like natural, inevitable aspects of everyday life (Sturkin & Cartwright 21).” This kind of egocentric narrative is present in the Rolling Stone cover when dissected fully,and it shows how the narrative in America is more like me, me, me instead of us, us, us. Even though nudity is now somewhat encouraged by our entertainment, there are still levels to nudity. In most cases when a woman is presented nude she is usually presented in a way that is not too exposing, just as Julia Dreyfus is doing in the cover. This is due to the fact that there is still a
Sitting on a bench in front of a popular franchise, the woman in the cartoon can’t help but feel discouragement and disbelief. In today's reality the difference between what's sexy and what's not, not only gives the mother a feeling of not being good enough but also effects how the mother chooses to feed her child. The use of pathos, ethos, and logos as well as the vivid imagery used a double standard today to determine that exposing breasts are okay if it is in a sexual way.
The premise of my argument that one would consider to be most controversial would be the premise that pornography does encourage freedom of speech/expression. Many may object to this because many people specifically feminists such as Catherine Mackinnon and Andrea Dworkin regard pornography as immoral because it is a form of sex discrimination. Other feminists as stated by Garry believe that pornography is a form of hate speech and that it defames women. In Garry’s paper she argues that certain content of pornography violates the moral principle of respecting people and how pornography degrades women as it depicts them as mere sex objects and how it is because of this pornography is morally impermissible. Due to the fact that the conclusion of my argument opposes Garry’s view, I will also discuss what she would say in response to the support of my “controversial” premise.
A multitude of countries and organizations use censorship for various reasons. However something they all have in common is the one providing the censored material does not want the reader or viewer to know something, whether that be the true state of a country or the real history of a matter. Censorship is a constant tug-a-war between two sides for the truth over a subject. This form of restriction can be observed from the early 1900’s to today’s modern times, and can also be seen worldwide in countries that have little to nothing in common.
This is a blatant representation of feminism saying, “look here! These parts shouldn’t be wrong.” This is, in my opinion, correct as well. As a patriarchal society we have made so much of the female body an object of desire, but also rude, in human history that we now have a problem viewing a naked figure. This also reflects things such as the “Free the Nipple!” movement of late. Matheson also touches upon this point saying that it is a gesture of trust offering your naked body on stage and the audience needs to deserve that intimacy, which helps to give power to an objectified
The pornification (or alternatively pornographication) of the social world has created lasting effects in the lives of people that they must deal with every day (Dines 1998, p. 164). Pornification is the process by which the social and cultural world is sexualised. This occurs through the expansion of media technology and the pornography industry, as well as changes in media regulations and restrictions which allow pornographic imagery to intrude into public spaces (Tyler 2011, p. 79). This essay will offer explanations for why the pornification of the social world is occurring, how the phenomenon differs from a freedom of expression issue and is instead considered a sociological issue, what consequences and harm arise from these explanations, and will offer social measures that can be adopted in order to deal with the issue. Pornification has occurred in almost every realm of the social world, including in its unaltered form on the Internet, social media, marketing, advertising, music, fashion, sport, and art. However, this expansion of easily accessible pornified content is a stark and confronting challenge for our social world.
Censorship is oft used to mute freedom of speech and self-expression, which are human rights. We need them to express individuality, to differentiate ourselves from each other. There was a teenaged boy who came out as gay, and when he told his story, it was censored from his school newspaper.
Censorship has granted immunity to men, they think it is acceptable to sexualize women, but when confronted they blame it on the “social norms” because that is what our society has come to terms with. The society that has been molded by Plato has created a set of norms that allow for oppression of women because they do not have the same anatomy as their male counterparts. The Free the Nipple movement started because women are looking for equality which has been taken from them due to the censorship of a women’s body. Women are not seen as though they are equal to men because both genders have different anatomy, censorship has created barriers between men and women, but since society is hard to change, little has been done about the inequality until recently with the feminist movements aiming towards breaking down those barriers.
Censorship may be protection from inappropriate materials, but it also limits free speech. For the limitation of free speech, it is reasonable why people are emphatically against censorship. It is understood that there is a need to filter some of the materials released in today’s society, but too much is being done by people who have no right meddling with everyone’s rights. Civilization has always been plagued by a never ending battle being fought over what is deemed right and wrong. In today’s culture, censorship oppresses everything in the media. From movies and music to television and even news stories, most of the content viewed today has been filtered one way or another. Restrictions have been in place since early societies have been
Social media should not moderate the comments or points of views from society due to the fact that everyone has the right to express what is on their mind. The U.S. created the First Amendment which protects the freedom of expression in essence, giving society the ability to state their opinion without fear of retribution. It is difficult to think of negative, hurtful, and spiteful comments being protected by the freedom of speech. The information and posts on social media has such a great influence over the population of the world, however it is important to remember that trolls as well as their comments should be taken lightly yet respected because it is their own opinion. Nonetheless people have become highly sensitive to trolls or any comments in which they might not agree with. Additionally it seems that trolls have a strong hold in social media yet, who are these trolls? Trolls make heinous comments on social media and are thrilled to keep anonymity as their profile. People who are behind an electronic screen are not always the most transparent and credible commentators. Many will argue that censorship is needed in social media as it could prevent excessive negativity online. Although this may have a case, if people allowed censorship of harsh and hateful believes what else will be censored in the future. Censorship in social media has the potential to create a deceitful view of society.
One issue that feminists should bring to the open and question is the definition of pornography. Often times anti-porn feminists argue that we can tell what is and isn’t porn easily. Yet the definition these feminists use to decide what counts as porn and whether it should be censored from the public applies to many things as Lumby points out in paragraphs nine and twelve. She draws up the movie Siren as an example of how Elle Macpherson’s nudity in the movie was widely accepted and went uncontested, but then Lumby points out how Macpherson’s shoot for Playboy was more modest than some of the shots in the film yet the photo shoot receives more flack because it’s categorized as porn (par 9).
The pornographic industry has not lost their viewers, and the constant leaks of female celebrity personal pictures demonstrate that society has always sexualized women’s body for their pleasure. McRobbie states that there is a modern movement where women are free to choose for themselves. Females are choosing to go topless to prove breasts are merely body parts. Celebrities such as Bella Hadid and Rihanna walk the streets with see-through tops, making the appearance of their breasts nothing but a fashion statement. Many allegations are made saying self-exposing breasts comes from a lack of self-respect. The question arises, is it only acceptable for women to be topless for the pleasure of others? Not in the current pop culture world. Women are free to make their decisions, and they have decided their breasts are not to be sexualized. If a woman’s breast is out, she is doing it out of choice and for her
Freedom of expression, and open access to media, are as fundamental to the survival of Progress as the sun and rain are to the survival of planet Earth. Yet censorship remains a traditional response of any group that finds itself offended at another's message or creative indulgence.